** FILE ** In this Tuesday, March 25, 2008 file picture, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom addresses the Sacramento Press Club in Sacramento, Calif. Newsom, a Democrat best known for challenging California's ban on same-sex marriage early in his first term, filed papers on Tuesday, July 1, 2008 to form an exploratory committee so he can start raising money and conducting polls for a possible gubernatorial campaign. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

Mayor Gavin Newsom has delayed a program to offer identification cards to all city residents regardless of their immigration status as city officials review the sanctuary policy for illegal immigrants.

"We've delayed it till we garner enough facts about our current sanctuary city and move forward with changing the policy," Newsom said Wednesday.

The mayor last month ordered City Administrator Ed Lee to suspend the ID card program in a letter released by the mayor's office Wednesday. That letter called for putting the program on hold "until a thorough review has been completed to ensure that every aspect of the program complies with all applicable state and federal laws."

The review of the city's sanctuary policies comes in response to a series of Chronicle articles explaining how the city regularly shielded young illegal immigrants from federal deportation after they were found guilty of felony crimes. That practice has since been stopped.

The city clerk was to begin issuing the ID cards sometime in late October or early November, but Newsom said it will not go forward "until all of these things are resolved." In addition to the sanctuary policies, Newsom cited the need to make the cards counterfeit-proof.

The delay also comes as City Attorney Dennis Herrera late last week filed the city's response to a lawsuit challenging the program's legality under state and federal law. A San Francisco Superior Court judge will hear arguments in that lawsuit later this month.

As currently planned, the card will be available to anyone who can prove he or she has lived in the city at least 15 days, along with proof of identity. It will be accepted as identification by city departments, including the police, and by any agency that receives city funding.

Officials envision the card eventually also being used at city facilities like the golf courses and library.

Some banks and other financial institutions also are considering allowing the card to be used as sufficient identification to open an account. While the program was designed to help illegal immigrants, backers of the cards also said they would help elderly residents without driver's licenses and transgender residents seeking accurate identification.

Supervisor Tom Ammiano, who sponsored the legislation that passed 10-1, said he has a meeting scheduled with Newsom this afternoon and he disputed that the program had been suspended.

"I'm confident the program is going to move forward and we can meet any legal challenge," said Ammiano, who said he expects the city to begin issuing cards in November.

The lawsuit, filed by the Immigration Reform Law Institute of Washington, D.C., states that city officials approved the program in November without accounting for the environmental impacts of what the institute predicts to be a large influx of illegal immigrants.

The lawsuit also argues that the cost of the program would be an illegal expenditure of city funds, and that San Francisco cannot declare a person to be a resident who is not in the country legally.

"It's aiding and abetting and encouraging illegal immigrants to remain in the country unlawfully," said Sharma Hammond, staff attorney for the organization.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of four San Francisco residents. Another attorney with that organization is suing the city on behalf of the Bologna family, three members of whom were allegedly killed by a man who as a juvenile had been shielded from deportation under the city's sanctuary policy.

Documents the city attorney filed in court argued that neither state nor federal law has any bearing on the city program.

"Nothing in the ordinance requires city officials to make any determinations about an individual's immigration status, much less about who should or should not be admitted to the country," according to the brief.

Immigrant rights organizations that have been working with city officials on the proposal and implementation of the program said they were caught off guard by the mayor's statements.